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Labour History News

Radical Economics

Conference on Radical Economics in the 20th Century: Radical Economics and the Labor Movement

Call for Papers
Date: 15 - 17 September 2005
Place: Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering and Technology adjacent to University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, United States

2005 will be the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World. To commemorate the anniversary, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) is hosting a conference on radical economics. The Conference theme is the role of radical economics in the labor movement in the United States and around the world. Radical economics includes but is not restricted to anarchism, Marxism, syndicalism, radical Institutionalism, left-wing Keynesianism, and plain old-fashioned radical economics.

Proposals on any aspect of the theme are invited. Possible topics include:

1. the role of radical economics in the education of workers such as radical economics in labor newspapers, the teaching of radical economics in labor schools, party schools, and colleagues and universities, in labor education programs, and in labor history courses
2. the role of radical economics in trade union publications, such as the role of radical economics in IWW publications on the general strike or the machine and unemployment
3. the role of radical economics in trade union strike, bargaining, and organizing activities
4. radical economics and the new society or the economics in radical utopian literature
5. radical economics, syndicalism, Guild Socialism, and the IWW
6. past and present development of radical economic theory
7. recent developments in radical economics and their relevance to the radical labor movement and to rank-and-filers
8. radical economics and the radical labor and radical student movements in the 20th Century

A selection of conference papers will be published in an edited volume in the Michigan University Press book series "Advances in Heterodox Economics".

Abstracts of the papers (around 250 words) on any of the above suggested topics or on any topic dealing with radical economics and the labor movement in the 20th Century may be sent either electronically or by post to both:

Fred Lee
Department of Economics
211 Haag Hall
University of Missouri-Kansas City
5100 Rockhill Road
Kansas City, Missouri 64110
United States
E-mail: leefs@umkc.edu

Jon Bekken
Communication Program
Albright College
P.O. Box 15234
Reading, Penn. 19612-5234
United States
E-mail: jbekken@alb.edu

Deadline for Submission: December 10, 2004 (98th anniversary of the first sit-down strike in the US called by the IWW at General Electric in Schenectady, New York)
Notification: January 11, 2005 (93rd anniversary of the IWW Bread & Roses strike in Lawrence, Mass.)

Conference fee: $140.00 (includes lunches, tea/coffee/juice, and conference dinner)
$ 70.00 for IWW members (includes lunches, tea/coffee/juice, and conference dinner)
$ 50.00 for graduate students (includes lunches and tea/coffee/juice)

About the Conference Organizers:

Fred Lee
In addition to being a Professor of Economics at UMKC and a member of many heterodox economic associations, including the Union for Radical Political Economics and Conference for Socialist Economists, he is a long-standing member of the IWW, was instrumental of retrieving Joe Hill's ashes from the National Archives in 1988, helped revive the IWW UK section while teaching in England in the 1990s, and is currently a member of the Kansas City General Membership Branch.

Jon Bekken
In addition to being an Associate Professor in Communications at Albright College, he is a long-standing member of the IWW, has been the Union's general secretary-treasurer, and is currently the editor of the Industrial Worker, the official newspaper of the IWW.